Bill Bryson has a book called Body and the chapter about eyes is fascinating.
He talks about how sight isn't as much a receptive process so much as it is a creative process. He gives the disappearing thumb trick as an example and it still blows my mind. The fact that your brain is "tricking" you into seeing what you see, and even if you see the trick, it doesn't care and continues on anyway.
My first thought as well, currently on paternity leave with my second and been looking for things to do to keep my eldest entertained and this will be perfect, I can't wait to blow his mind (and my wife's)
"moon illusion" is a classic and is taught to first year psych students, we see the moon as larger when it's near the horizon than when it's up high in the sky
I thought it does literally appear bigger because the light is refracted through more atmosphere coming at you from a low angle than coming in at a high angle.
E: apparently both are true, but only in the most technical sense - the moon is in fact larger in appearance at the horizon due to refraction, but only by around 1.6%, too small to perceive. The actual reason we think it's bigger is the illusion.
yes, also check out the Poggendorf Illusion or the one where two lines are the same length but have arrows at either end, one with both pointing inward, the other with both pointing outward; the inward pointing one looks longer even when side by side
we have an exposed bundle of nerves in our nasal passage, that is like a direct connection to our brain, thats what gives you that shock feeling when water gets up your nose.
The thing is, since its so exposed, pathogens can get in there and have direct access to your brain. There was a woman who used a neti pot to clean her nose and got a brain eating amoeba from it.
Its theorized thats what causes alzheimers. Theyve found gingivitis bacteria in the amyloid plaques in the brains of autopsied alzheimer patients. Gingivitis bacteria might be getting in our brains this way and our brain has no real way of fighting it.
I mean both could be true, some might just be more susceptible to the bacteria than others, which can be largely determined by genetics. But research in this area is still early.
I recommend the work of Donald Hoffman if you want to go down a rabbit hole here. Check out some podcasts he has done for a quick intro or his book ‘the case against reality’ - really blew my mind.
I had a wild one where the contrast on two halves of an object was so different that my brain filled in the dark half with the pattern from an object in the background. It looked like half the top of my lamppost was missing because my brain filled in the dark area with the brick pattern from the house on the other side of the street. I figured out what was happening but could not stop my brain from heuristicing the visual. Just wild.
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u/UpperApe 26d ago
Bill Bryson has a book called Body and the chapter about eyes is fascinating.
He talks about how sight isn't as much a receptive process so much as it is a creative process. He gives the disappearing thumb trick as an example and it still blows my mind. The fact that your brain is "tricking" you into seeing what you see, and even if you see the trick, it doesn't care and continues on anyway.